Soccer players racially targeted after boycotting social media sites

Chris Smalling of Manchester United looking dejected following The Emirates FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium on May 19, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

A number of soccer players became targets of abuse on social media after they decided to protest against racism during a 24-hour campaign called “Enough.”

According to the Associated Press, the players boycotted social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram after Tottenham soccer defender Danny Rose was hassled with monkey noises while he was playing for England in Montenegro last month. Chris Smalling, a Calso requested “stringent regulation” of social media posts.

Many players were “silent” on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for 24 hours on Friday for the protest and now the Professional Footballers’ Association is coordinating with social media companies about cracking down on racism on the platforms.

”Yesterday, some members received racist abuse on their #Enough posts. When these incidents were reported, the response from social networks was—again—unacceptable,” thea association said in a statement. ”In the coming days, we will be inviting players to report any racist abuse they have received to us. We will collate it and share it with social platforms to demonstrate the impact of their lack of action.”

“We will be requesting meetings with each of the social platforms as a matter of priority,” the PFA said. ”Meetings with the Football Association and government are planned for next month. This is a first step in a larger player-led campaign to tackle racism and demand meaningful change.”

Companies did not seem to respond on their platforms about the players’ concerns although coverage about the issue has been circulating. FIFA has also shown support for the boycott.

Twitter has not commented on the issue. Facebook, who also owns Instagram, released a statement, but did not address the athletes’ concerns.

”We will remove hate speech or credible threats of any kind, and we encourage anyone who sees content they find offensive to report it so we can remove anything that breaks our community standards,” Facebook said by email. ”We have developed a range of tools that allow users to moderate and filter the content that people put on their pages including; hiding or deleting comments, blocking certain words, turning on a profanity filter, and banning people.”